Cynthia Kallgren was born in the Downriver community of Wyandotte, Mich., and currently resides in Trenton. She received a bachelor's degree in social science from Eastern Michigan University.

She is a small business owner, former consultant and teacher.

Kallgren and her husband, Scott, have four children.

Cynthia Kallgren is running for Michigan's 12th Congressional District seat, saying that job creation is her "number one priority." She is facing Democratic U.S. Rep. John Dingell in the November 2012 general election.

Kallgren said that, if elected, she will fight for policies and solutions to stimulate the economy and put southeast Michigan residents back to work. She prefers individual innovation and freedom to what she calls "big government policies."

"Our nation's economy is a mess and the good old boys in Congress have decided to regulate, tax, borrow, subsidize, and borrow again and again," Kallgren said. "Consequently we the people are weighed down with over-regulation, taxes, debt, increased unemployment, and much despair."

Kallgren believes the answer is investing, innovation and production.

"That's how southeast Michigan became the center of capitalism and the manufacturing capital of the world," she says. "We can become that again by rolling government spending back to responsible levels, simplifying the tax code, reducing taxes, eliminating burdensome regulations and creating tax incentives that encourage innovation and economic growth."